*awkward silence* …*cough* So..errm not much to say…I don't own Pokemon!
Eternal – A Find In The Forest
Misty's POV
The breeze flowed past softly, weaving through my hair and making it sway slightly. The two of us sat in silence for the next few minutes, enjoying the quiet sounds of nature. Ash spoke up a few seconds later, and soon enough we were just talking about random things. It was then that I finally decided to ask him the question.
"Ash?" I began slowly.
"Yeah Mist?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, you can ask me anything Mist. What is it?"
"Your parents," I finally asked, breathing in sharply as he tensed up.
"What about them?" he asked quietly.
"What...what happened to them? Paul said you were on a cliff with Gary. Why?"
He sighed and ran a hand through his raven locks.
"Promise not to tell anyone?"
I nodded, seeing as I didn't trust myself with words right now.
"It was really late at night, and Gary was over at my place with his parents. We had just finished dinner, and Gary and I were upstairs at the time, so we watched from the staircase as three figure suddenly burst in. They grabbed out parents, so we climbed out the window and ran," he explained with a far off look in his eyes.
"What happened then?"
"We ran towards the gorge, one of them was following us. It backed us up against the cliff edge and… attacked," Ash continued, struggling to keep his voice from cracking.
I gasped. What? Who does that to two small children? Poor Ash!
"W-we don't know why it stopped, but suddenly it took off and later on Paul and Drew found us. They took us in, but we never saw our parents again," he finished quietly.
"Oh Ash, I'm so sorry," standing up slowly, I walked over and put my arms around him. It surprised me that he instantly returned the gesture and buried his face in my hair.
"Don't be. It's not your fault." He replied softly, managing a small half smile.
"Did you ever find out who did it?" I decided to ask.
He seemed to be having an inner battle with himself, but eventually he spoke up.
"I-I never found out who they were," he started slowly. "But they…ugh forget it, you wouldn't believe me."
"Try me," I challenged, smiling. Besides, I already had a pretty good idea of who, or more like what did it. He knew exactly what he was talking about. Little did he know, so did I.
"Alright, but don't say I didn't say I told you so. They all had red glowing eyes, and were really strong. The one chasing us was pretty fast to."
I looked on with fake shock written all over my face.
"See? I knew you wouldn't believe me," his expression fell slightly and he looked at the ground.
"I never said I didn't believe you Ash. It's just a little strange."
"So you do believe me?" he asked hopefully.
"Why wouldn't I? You haven't lied to me before," I laughed and saw a flicker of guilt flash in his eyes. I'm guessing that was because of keeping Drew's secret, but to be honest, I was in no position to judge.
"You're the best Mist!" Ash cried out happily and hugged me tighter.
I kept on smiling and hugged him back, feeling even worse now because he wasn't the one that had a reason to be feeling guilty.
"Hey Misty?" Ash spoke after a couple of minutes.
"Hmm?" I mumbled.
"Thanks for being here, and thanks for listening. Ever since that happened I haven't really talked to anyone about it except for Gary, and he wasn't much help either. I'm really grateful that you're here.
A massive pang of guilt shot through me, but I put on a smile and chose to just look into his eyes instead.
"It's like I can trust you with anything, I feel completely safe around you. You seem to be one of the only things in my life that won't end up hurting me."
That did it. The amount of pain his words were sending my way was unreal, it almost measured up to everything I had been through in the last few centuries. Why? Why did he have to keep making this harder?
"It's ok Ash, I'm always here if you need me. The girls and I haven't had the easiest life either," I replied, trying extremely hard to keep my voice from shaking.
"Oh yeah," He frowned remembering that our parents were dead as well. "What happened to your parents anyway?"
"We should probably get back now," I whispered.
"Mist-
"It's okay Ash. I promise that I'll tell you soon, just not now alright?" I forced myself to keep the smile, standing up and turning away.
He sighed before returning the smile.
"If you're sure."
"Positive. Now come on, we better make sure nobody ended up in hospital," I said, facing him once again and holding out my hand.
"Or that Drew isn't permanently scarred," he grinned, accepting the gesture and we both set off towards the meeting point.
The whole time I was thinking about everything that had happened today, and my thoughts flickered across the ones I was having prior to the lake. Everything seems to be fine for now, but I knew it wouldn't last forever.
I would let him know eventually, but for now, it was best to remain a secret.
Leaf's POV
Wow, this place was amazing! Creepy, but amazing.
We walked along the first tunnel for several minutes, and eventually ended up in a massive hollowed out area. Gary and I looked around in awe at the structure. Several smaller tunnels were connected and running different ways, and rock columns were attached from the floor to ceiling.
Small streams of water ran along the ground steadily, creating a rippling effect on the cave walls.
"So which one do we take?" I heard him ask faintly.
Having super hearing has its perks, because I could use it to determine which tunnel would be the safest. Inconspicuously, I quickly looked over each of the tunnels. Just as I was about to say that we should take the second one to the left, I heard faint voices.
"Well Leafy?"
"Shh!"
"But-
"Shh! I hear voices."
"What? That's impossible!" he yell-whispered and struggled to try and hear.
I listened more carefully, and sniffed the air a little. There weren't any scents that seemed unusual or that I recognized, but there were definitely voices headed towards us, even Gary could hear them by now.
Thankfully, it seemed that they hadn't noticed us yet. I nudged Gary to let him know that he should stop standing there like idiot and get moving. He nodded sheepishly, and we both tip-toed quickly out of the area. As soon as we had gotten a little ways down the tunnel, we bolted.
Eventually we made it outside, and he was panting. I however, being a supernatural being, was perfectly fine.
"What's… wrong… with you? How can….. you… not tired!" he gasped between pants.
"Misty's sporty, I go for runs with her all the time," I shrugged lying effortlessly, he seemed to buy it.
"There really were people in those caves, but why? They haven't been used in years!" Gary spoke when he got his breath back.
"I'm not sure, but whatever it is it can't be good," I replied and he nodded.
"I think we should get back to the group now," he suggested. "Whoever is in there could come out."
"Good idea."
We were still slightly shaken up, and I couldn't get this nagging feeling out of my mind that I had smelt those scents before.
After about another half hour, Gary and I walked up to the meeting place to find everyone was already there.
May and Drew were arguing, surprise, surprise right? Although this time May was doing all the smirking and Drew seemed to be desperately yelling something about families and plants.
I didn't even want to know.
Ash and Misty looked very comfortable, and were sitting extremely close together with Ash smiling about something that made her giggle. I couldn't help but be happy for my friend, but then remembered that it wasn't a good thing.
Paul and Dawn were sitting down looking over their notes and Paul's expression seemed like he was giving off a smile?
Either I've gone crazy or Paul is happy.
I'm gonna go with crazy.
Upon seeing our arrival, Dawn looked up and smiled brightly. "Hey guys! How did it go?"
Gary and I shot each other a worried look, something that they all caught onto.
"What happened?" Misty asked carefully.
"We don't exactly know..." I started and trailed off.
"Did Gary do the 'slip over and fall onto girl' technique?" Drew asked.
"Wha-
"What about the 'It's a little dark in these caves, we should hold hands so we don't get lost' tactic?" Ash asked.
At this point, Gary was extremely red and looking anywhere but me.
"That wasn-
"Or my personal favourite, when he does the 'make scary noises to frighten girl so he can chase them away causing her to jump into his arms and think he's a hero'," Paul smirked.
Gary went beat red with embarrassment and we all burst out laughing. "You seriously tried that?" I asked wiping a tear of joy away from my eyes.
"It worked on all the others," he muttered. "Anyway, aren't we getting off topic?"
"Oh yeah! When we were in the cave, there were voices and people in there," I suddenly remembered, halting my laughter.
The others looked at us, mouths hanging open.
"That's not even possible! Nobodies crazy enough to go in there...uh besides you two," Ash gaped.
"That's the whole point; there shouldn't have been anyone in there. Whatever they were doing, it doesn't sound like we should meddle with it."
Everyone nodded in agreement, and Ash put an arm around Misty. I saw Paul raise an eyebrow at this and frown slightly, but otherwise ignore it.
"It's getting late, let's head back," Drew spoke up suddenly and stood effortlessly. Almost to effortlessly…
I shook the thought off and felt a burning in my throat. Crap, I haven't fed properly in at least two weeks. We had the bottles, but it wasn't enough. I gave Misty a look, who understood and spoke up.
"I'm going to stay here for a bit and look into the water aspects a bit more."
"But it's too dangerous to stay out here by yourself at night," Ash frowned.
And that's my cue.
"I'll stay with her, besides, maybe I can actually find some bugs to test. We didn't get anything done anyway."
He was about to protest, but was interrupted by Misty.
"It's alright Ash, Leaf and I can take care of ourselves."
"But Mi-
"I grew up here remember? These woods are like a second home to me," she smiled, and he caved.
"Okay, but if you are not at school tomorrow I'm coming after you," Ash warned and everyone rolled their eyes.
"We'll see you guys later!" Dawn called out as her and May started along the path back to ourhouse, the group of boys heading in the opposite direction. Paul paused, and turned back to Misty slightly when she wasn't looking. He whispered something to Drew, and began walking away from both groups into a deeper part of the forest. Interesting…
There was definitely something suspicious about Paul, and something even more so with Drew. I know I've seen him somewhere before, if only I could just figure out where.
Normal POV
"So Misty, I couldn't help but notice you and Ash are becoming pretty close," Leaf began suggestively.
Misty sighed, there was no way she could keep this from Leaf.
"Yeah, I really like him," she admitted, and Leaf eyed her with pity.
"Misty, you do know it's just not possible right? He'd freak if he knew, plus remember what they said? His parents were killed. You're a killer by nature Misty, he won't accept that."
"I know, I know! It's just so unfair; I've never even killed a human before!"
"But you have killed vampires, and you're about to kill again in a matter of minutes. He's a human, he can't understand."
"We're moving away anyway, it's not like it matters," Misty muttered.
The brunette frowned. "Of course it matters! It-
"Shh! I hear something."
They forgot about their conversation and listening intently for any noises, letting their instincts take over. Sure enough, to the left a few yards away were a group of deer grazing.
The two nodded at each other, and began the hunt.
Wind whipped at their bodies as they ran, expertly avoiding all objects that came in their path. Soon enough they had a large stag pinned down and set to work.
"By the way, I think there is something you should know about Drew…"
Through all the commotion, they didn't notice the pair of eyes watching them in the distance.
Paul moved quickly, the animal stood no chance. Within seconds in was lying on the forest floor lifeless, and Paul finished it off quickly. Suddenly, he felt a soft breeze flow by him and the scent of something that didn't belong in a forest spread through his nose.
Paul bared his teeth and turned in the direction the scent was coming from, and saw the outline of two figures leaning over an animal in the distance. Even with his enhanced eyesight, it was too dark and he was too far away to see the figures clearly, but he could still see what they were doing.
"Impossible," he snarled and took off in their direction.
They must have heard him coming, because as soon as he started they took off instantly and he had no chance of catching them. The mauve haired boy came to a halt at the animal, its killers long gone by now and began to search for any familiar trace.
His eyes widened and his fists once again clenched as the thing he was looking for came into sight. It was right before his eyes, snagged on a small bush, caught as the person was taking off.
A lock of bright orange hair.
